I found this thread going through the puppy forum. I've been working on "building" 2 variants of puppy for both cloud computing and business application (small business owners).

So far the cloud thing is kinda non-progressing as I don't have much time to invest and, as with this, so much information and a lot of it in different places...etc ...etc.

For the business app, I wanted to use an already established base, only the working necessities of desktop, network, etc. then add applications that are 'general' enough in function to suit many business occupations. So far, what I have is a Lucid 5.2.8 build ( still in progress) that has some 'useful' apps with it.

I am using Libre Office, GNU Cash (accounting), Osmo (planner and scheduler), Slypheed for email, pidgin for chat/conference, and have open source point-of-sale to handle things like inventory, sales, employee records, etc.

It's not much, but it is a start for me. Wanted to share this with you guys and see what kind of feedback/suggestions you would have for me so that I can built it into a better derivative.

As I mentioned in jrb's thread (http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=83841), there are many possibilities for many variants of packages :
mostly LO templates, java apps, more traditional SQLite / csv -type programs. We hadn't really thought of Cloud apps. Neither of POS appls.

Could you explain to us in a few words what POS apps can bring to the SOHO worker ?

thanks for the roses! I hope my build ends up being something useful. To extrapolate on the pos systems advantages, let me start by using this quote: "if you don't have customers, you don't have a business."

This is true in so many ways, but the main concept behind business is singular - to make money. The only way to earn money is to sell something. Regardless how big or how far up the chain you get, the boil-down is that customers are buying the product or service you are selling. Most small business operations are direct-contact with the customer and must have a means of conducting transactions. Point-of-sale is that means.

Most point-of-sale software/apps now include many of the 'background' processes that work hand-in-hand with the POS. Things such as inventory management, customer database/relations, employee tracking, purchase and sales reporting, etc. Rather than having several applications to transfer data between, having them all 'update' automatically in one program is a time saver and safer in many aspects.

This particular build was made for a friend of mine who runs a hair salon. She - like most business people - is not very 'computer savy' and doesn't have the time to invest in learning. She uses the Libre Office to compose her letterheads, maintian a database of her customer's formulas (what combination and processes she uses on each client), etc - the GNU cash for her financial statements (does have to transfer the reports data unfortunately) - Osmo schedules her appointments and reminds her of things that she has upcoming such as bills to be paid etc - and the POS to conduct transactions with her customers. As she is the sole proprietor and there are no other business locations, the chat is all but useless. The email and fax are used to communicate with her suppliers.

The thing she likes most is the portability. She is able to bring the laptop with her to work, conduct business, and go home to finish the minor details as opposed to being stuck at the building until they are done. She also likes - from what she tells me - the fact that all the information is in one place. She makes a backup every day after work onto an external HDD so if anything goes wrong, at worst, she has only lost a day or partial-day's worth of data.

Not to change the subject much, and I know this is becoming more of a 'book' than a posting (sorry guys ) but I want to touch on the cloud-based stuff a moment. There are many cloud-based apps and business solutions out there now. Google even has it's won version of the cloud that they have just made available through the Googlebook. Android and of course apple/mcintosh has been successful with it for a few years now.

My concept is a good Linux (Preferably Puppy as it is what I use ) distro that is small and fast, able to convert many of the older systems with less-than-speedy hardware (such as my IBM thinkpad with k6-2 and 256MB ram ) into viable, usable tools, and able to tap into the enormous resources available in the cloud. To be able to put together a 'cloud operating system' that, when you turn on the computer, tablet, or phone brings you directly to the internet and to the tools you might need to operate an independent small business or large corporation - right on the desktop.

There are a few of these already on the market - such a jolicloud, Googles Chromium OS (Googlebook), and others. They are general cloud browseing oriented. However, I desire to build one that concentrates on business apps primarily.

Most, if not all the things that have been and are being discussed here can or are done on the network anyway. The POS system I use is php based. There are many web-based apps -calendars, storage, office documentation, etc- that can be utilized which are out there already. In my humble opinion, the only thing missing is the OS to link and have them all working together automatically.

Whew I did a lot of talking didn't I. Well, with all that put out there, I hope it helps in some way. Any suggestions/ideas for my project(s) is greatly appreciated. I can hardly wait to see where this thread leads as far as development of new business avenues.

Thanks, Really hope I can help with some input. I am still very new to Puppy and Linux. Have a lot to learn, but am looking forward to it. I know these guys have a hard time with my language (as I do with French) so I really appreciate you doing the translation posts. Maybe I can learn how some day and save you the trouble?

@everyone

Thanks for letting be part of this. Sorry I only type English, but you really don't want to see my French . Anyway, Sorry for the language barrier, but thanks again.

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